Former Wimbledon and French Open champion Simona Halep criticized the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) for the way it handled her own doping case in comparison to that of Iga Swiatek.
“I sit and try to understand but it’s really impossible for me to understand something like this. I sit and think, why such a huge difference in treatment and decision? “I can’t find it, and I don’t think there can be any logical answer to it. “This can only be malice on the part of ITIA, the organization that did everything possible to destroy me despite the evidence,” Halep said on Instagram Friday, according to the AP.
On Thursday, world number two Swiatek accepted a one-month suspension by the ITIA after testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine, a heart drug known as TMZ. The Polish player failed an out-of-competition drug test in August and the ITIA accepted her explanation that the result was unintentional and was caused by contamination from a non-prescription drug, melatonin, which Swiatek recommends for jet lag and sleep issues. Was taking for.
Reacting to that, Halep, who received a four-year suspension after testing positive for the banned drug roxadustat at the 2022 US Open, said the ITIA had looked at two similar cases very differently.
Halep’s suspension was reduced to nine months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport after CAS accepted her explanation about the contaminated supplement. But, she missed playing for 1 and 1/2 years.
“I’ve always believed in goodness, I’ve always believed in the fairness of this game, I’ve always believed in kindness. The injustice done to me was painful, is painful and will probably always be painful. How is it possible that in similar cases that occurred at approximately the same time (season), ITIA has a completely different approach to my losses? he said on the Instagram post.
(with agency input)